Still confused with coolant blowout

Just a little recap. On the dyno my car blew coolant out of the overflow when the tuner started making pulls past 4 grand so the it was tuned to 4 grand then the rest of the rpm band was a conservative guess on my chip. Bring the car home and it drives great got on it a little bit all goes well. Then I got on it harder and it sputters and dies. Forgot about the car for a couple weeks then last night took a look at sure enough all the had happened was a coupler to pipe in the coldside of the turbo had blown off. No biggie. Hooked it back up and just drove it and it drove awesome. Got on it hard and coolant blew out the overflow again. The coolant is pure water it seems but has a light foam somewhat.

A couple things to keep in mind. It does not blow smoke and does not over heat. Nor does there seem to be coolant in the oil pan and it runs awesome and pulls like it should. I'm stumped as are my buddies. Any help would be much appreciated.

blksn955.o said:

You could be lifting the heads and putting added pres. in the coolant. That or a head gasket that is not 100% at the top end when under the most boost...leaking cyl. pres. to the coolant area.

Not all HG leaks send coolant to the oil or vise versa.

What kind of hardware are you running? TTY bolts, ARP bolts, ARP studs, or what?

Click to expand...

I have ARP head bolts.

89-347-LX said:

what radiator cap pressure rating do you have?

Click to expand...

Stock cap.

blksn955.o said:

You could be lifting the heads and putting added pres. in the coolant. That or a head gasket that is not 100% at the top end when under the most boost...leaking cyl. pres. to the coolant area.

Not all HG leaks send coolant to the oil or vise versa.

Click to expand...

I had wondered if that was happenening. But when they aren't lifting would it still run great? I wouldn't have thought so.

Pokageek said:

Ok. I believe I have seen this happen before where the HG break was in an area where the coolant was not getting into the cylinder but was blowing pressure into the system... I would head toward getting metal type head gaskets and new ones at that. They were more money but when I put them on my turbo'd car, I never had problems again.

Click to expand...

I was thinking I would use the 9333s again with arp studs.

Adam95GT said:

Told you last month... the heads need to come off.... you either have lifting under boost or a small head gasket leak.

Click to expand...

First time I've touched the car since last month was today. Keep in mind we are not talking about large amounts of boost here. Probably 4 pounds.

nmcgrawj said:

BTW, are you gonna have to pay lidio again to finish the tune?

Click to expand...

Well the good thing is technically I don't really ever have to go back. Its completely tuned just maybe not quite as perfect as it could be over 4 grand. But yes, if and when I go back I will have to pay another 1 to 200 to finish it, which is fine because he didn't charge me full price when I was there. I will probably take it back there next year. Assuming I get the issues figured out I will be content running around with 8 psi for this year.

Well, I swapped the head gaskets a month ago and it was all back together, but oil was leaking out like crazy at my oil filter adapter, which was somehow messed up. They were on back order frome every place that sold them. Finally got it yesterday and threw it on. I didn't have a chance to drive it a whole lot, but no coolant blew out so I think that just maybe the car is finally going to be good to go.

Only problem now is i have a battery issue. If I leave it connected it will be totally dead in a couple days and yesterday when I was driving it the battery light was on. The alternator was replaced maybe a couple years ago as well. I'm goin to pull it off right now and have it tested down at the auto parts store. Kinda hoping its bad and its not some other problem thats harder to fix.

After I get that figured out I will get the exhaust put on. Right now I just have any open downpipe. I have a hooker max flow I just got that I am going to run dumped. Keeping the exhaust nice and simple.

After that I have a super king cobra clutch waiting for install along with a cable, firewall adjuster, and quadrant.

If all goes well the car will be in good driving shape in a couple weeks or so for the first time in 5 years. I cannot believe it has been that long. Ugh.

nmcgrawj said:

Make sure you make a clip of that max flow....since u know how hard it is to find info on them lol.


And be careful with the alternator....they can "switch on/off" as they are going bad. Might create an endless cycle for you if it tests good at the store yet u continue to have problems. Have a voltmeter hooked up?

Click to expand...

The alternator tested positive. So we will see what happens. It got start and driven about 5-6 times today each time I shut it off I disconnected the battery. The last time I started it it is definitely starting slower and seeming as though its not going to start in a couple more starts. Ugh.

I took it to the muffler shop today because I was so sick of the obnoxious garbage it sounded like. I was very excited to hear the max flows then the guy comes in and says yeah that muffler isnt gonna work. Basically for 1 main reason and another good reason. First off the main problem is I bought a center in center out. In order to put the muffler in the pocket it needs to go in under the car, it needed to have an offset inlet to turn past the corner it needs to. So it would have worked with an offset inlet. However, the max flow is a big case muffler and it just fit into the spot where it needed to be. As in I can very easily see alot of rattling occuring with it.

Either way I stood there pissed for a minute and just decided to have someone drop me off my summit "bullet style" muffler that I had sitting at home. It's what I was originally gonna use, but decided I wanted it even quieter and cleaner. I figured worst case scenario I hate it and its just a matter of going back and having then cut it off and throw on whatever I bring.

As for the sound. I wasn't expecting alot, but am about as happy as I would have thought with it. The sound itself cleaned up ALOT compared the open downpipe. It has a good rumble at idle and sounds pretty decent. But it is a dumped bullet and it drones like none other. But overall I have all the piping made up and bent so switching mufflers wouldnt be too big a deal.

My question now is, I realize the max flow would have been a little quieter and more unique sounding, but would it still drone bad? Are ALL dumped setups prone to bad drone? Becaue if it is gonna drone pretty much no matter what I'll just keep this muffler and if it ever gets that bad where I dont like it Ill just get tailpipes.

Thanks for any input!